Subscribe to this blog

Follow by Email!

JetBlue is expanding Mint again!

UPDATE (Nov 2016):Delta announced that they'll also be adding lie-flat seats to their NYC – San Diego, and Boston – San Francisco routes! Hooray for competition!

As I've said before, I'm a huge fan of JetBlue's "Mint" First Class product (trip reports here, here, and here) It's hands-down the best domestic seat, food, and service in First Class. I'd even go so far to say that Mint, except for its lack of lounge access, is actually superior to the Big 3's (United, Delta, American) international Business Class offerings.

After the big excitement last week where JetBlue and Alaska were bidding for Virgin America, I wasn't sure what to expect from them once it became clear Alaska was willing to pay any price (and did) to win.

Well, they announced some big news today – Mint is expanding to a bunch of new markets! I've mentioned before that they expanded beyond the traditional premium domestic market of LAX/SFO/JRK and added Boston, Aruba to the list of cities they serve. But now we can add:

This is fantastic news. Just a few years ago, the only lie-flat domestic First Class was from the big 3 and only on the JFK-SFO/LAX route. JetBlue entered this market with an even better seat (hello suites with closing doors!) and gourmet food and forced the Big 3 to slash their prices by $1000.

Now they're going to bring this same product to a bunch of runs where the competition is crappy 38" recliners, so they'll be several notches above the competition for quality and experience. But I'm genuinely curious how many people will actually pay to fly First Class in these markets. So often it seems like domestic First exists mostly for the benefit frequent travelers who fly so much they're getting some type of complimentary upgrade. A couple thoughts on that:

JetBlue isn't shy about offering steep discounts on Mint to get people to try it. (And once you try it, you're hooked!)

JetBlue's folksy attitude somehow manages to make First Class feel accessible and fun, not a club for "grumpy 40-something guys in embroidered work Polo shirts"

Because they don't do complimentary upgrades, JetBlue has to "earn" each passenger's satisfaction every time.

While I normally hate paying money for crappy domestic First because it's such a crummy product, I'm fine with giving JetBlue some extra money for a lie-flat bed, great food, and flight attendants who care about service. Finally something worth the extra money!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

From Pokemon to Neko Atsume to shuinchou temple books, Japanese people love obsessively collecting things. They also love trains. The Eki stamp ("station stamp") is where those two things meet. Most Japan Railways stations (including urban metro ones like the Yamanote line) have a unique stamp reflecting that station's history. Kids and train nerds (a.k.a. "Tecchan") buy cute little books to collect the stamps of all the stations they've been to. The USA has a similar program with the national parks.

(UPDATE: on a recent visit to Taipei, I found out that the Taiwanese do this too!) Nerdiness aside, an Eki stamp book makes a great souvenir: it's flat, small, cheap, and light... and shouldn't take but a few moments to do when you're out and about. Special Eki stamp books are usually available at bookstores and stationery stores. Kinokuniya in Shinjuku, for example, has them in their travel section on the basement floor. Because not everyone knows w…

Pros Best in-flight meal everFantastic serviceGreat seat/bedToto Washlet on boardNice departure time (noon Eastern) means a very calm Terminal 7Cons Honestly, none. Other than it's 30,000 more points per person each way than Korean Air First Class, but you get what you pay for...
How I did it
Detailed info is over here, but the short story is: 110,000 United Miles + $5.60 in fees, per person, one way. We earned those miles through a combination of last year's flying on United and one 50,000-point United credit card sign up bonus. We booked around 9 months in advance.
ArrivingWe got stuck trying to do online check-in, but a quick call to ANA got that sorted out. ANA uses Terminal 7 at JFK, along with British, Cathay, and Iceland Air. Since the bulk of British Airways flights happen in the evening, the terminal was basically empty when we arrived at 10:30am.
ANA check-in for all cabins is located to the right of the main hallway. For some reason our TSA Pre information didn'…

Pros:
Awesome food (Ippudo Ramen!)
Toto Washlet in the lavatory Neutrals:
Wifi available but it was expensive and buggy
Nice lie-flat seat but it was oddly lumpy even with the sleeping mat Cons:
No personal air vents

Boarding
We started in the British Airways Galleries lounge. Seems like no matter who I fly with (Iceland Air, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, and now ANA) this is their lounge of choice. It's decent. There's a dining room within the lounge but only One World top tier or people flying on BA First get to use it.
The 777 has ANA's new "staggered Business Class" seats and was configured similarly to the Cathay Pacific 777 I took back in January – Business Class is split in two by a galley area and a door. We sat in the larger rear section. One advantage to sitting in the forward part of Business Class is that you don't have lots of people walking past you during boarding. Headphones, slippers, blanket, pillows, and an amenity kit were waiting for us …